Things We Found When the Water Went Down

"Tegan Nia Swanson's debut is a multi-faceted excavation of inherited trauma in both the spiritual and physical world that asks if regrowth is possible after immolation and offers no easy answers. In shifting forms and propulsive language, she captures the impossibility of history, the fierce pride of so-called otherness, and the dream of a gentler world. Immersive, heartbreaking, and cathartic." —Julia Fine, author of The Upstairs House
 
"With the inspiration of passion and heightened attention (which some define as prayer) to her characters and setting, Tegan Swanson has written something entirely original and utterly fearless. Things We Found When the Water Went Down is an unforgettable literary experience that is more akin to being sucked down through a tube into a slightly different reality than it is to 'reading' a book. On this journey, the traveler’s heart stills, quickens, dives, ascends, and with each page, becomes wiser. I’ve never quite read anything like it. This book is a joy and an illumination." —Rick Bass, author of The Watch, The Hermit's Story, and All the Land That Holds Us
 
"Is Tegan Nia Swanson a novelist, poet, collagist, puzzle-master, or sorceress? Is this book a northern noir or an eco-thriller or a mosaic colored by magical realism? These are the questions raised by a dazzlingly original talent and story. Things We Found When the Water Went Down is a cerebral, lyrical, beautiful, mysterious defiance." —Benjamin Percy, author of The Unfamiliar Garden, The Ninth Metal, and Thrill Me